Conventionally, a vehicle door opening and closing apparatus has been used, which includes: a latch mechanism (closing latch mechanism) including a latch that is able to retain a door in a closed state by engaging with a striker and a ratchet that is able to engage with this latch; and a release electric mechanism mechanically coupled to the ratchet and including a drive source, such as a motor.
In this a configuration, if an electric trouble, such as motor failure or sticking, occurs when release operation for releasing the engagement in the closing latch mechanism is being performed by the release electric mechanism, the ratchet may be restrained in a release operated state (hereinafter, this state being referred to as “release restrained state”). After being brought into this release restrained state, the ratchet is unable to engage with the latch and the door becomes unable to be retained in a closed position.
In order to deal with such failure, a configuration has been proposed, which is, if a release restrained state is caused, able to cancel the release restrained state by inserting a tool from an operation hole open to inside of a vehicle or manually operating a knob provided inside the vehicle (for example, see Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2).